


Giving Way

by RisuAlto



Series: Tai Lon's Story [6]
Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Cave-In, Claustrophobia, Deadfire, Falling In Love, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury, No Spoilers, Panic Attacks, Pre-Relationship, Trapped, death mention, rated for language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-12 17:40:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21480277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RisuAlto/pseuds/RisuAlto
Summary: Edér was midway through grumbling about the state of his chestplate when something like a whip’s snap echoed through the chamber. But it was deeper, rumbling through Tai Lon’s chest, and it didn’t stop with a single crack.  She whirled in place, searching for a source, as cracks began to run like rivers across the ceiling.In which Tai Lon & co. try to take a rest after fighting a cave grub in Neketaka's Old City, but fail to take structural damage into account.
Relationships: Aloth Corfiser/The Watcher
Series: Tai Lon's Story [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1548022
Comments: 5
Kudos: 11





	Giving Way

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LunaRowena](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunaRowena/gifts).

> This prompt was, "Facing their phobia."
> 
> For reference, this is still in early Deadfire, so 1. Tai Lon still has a crush on Edér; 2. Aloth does not have Dimensional Shift or Form of the Helpless Beast; 3. this was inspired by an actual situation in which I fought the giant cave grub by having Edér stand in the door of the room and snipe the bastard from outside its attack range after it killed my entire party twice.

The Old City ruins were quite magnificent, Tai Lon thought, if one could look past the tragedy and corruption surrounding it. They still held treasure—ancient weapons long abandoned (even if some of them were rather…irritating), gems, strange fungi they could use for potions. The only drawbacks, frankly, were the smell of rot, and the inhabitants.

The cave grub guarding this place (whether doing so by design or unfortunate accident) had nearly taken them all out. Edér barely managed to drag her and Aloth out of its range, sniping the damn thing with Frostseeker from outside the door. He mentioned guiltily once they’d regained consciousness that there’d been no time to go back for Serafen or Xoti, but apparently the grub had been too distracted trying to hit _him_ that it left their companions alone.

So, everything had worked out, but not without cost. Glancing around again, Tai Lon’s eyes were drawn to Xoti’s leg, hastily bandaged to cover the furious bruising from where the grub had slammed her against the rocks. Aloth and Serafen were sporting near-matching acid burns on their chests, and Edér’s armor had been nearly eaten through in a number of places by the same bile. And that wasn’t even mentioning that Tai Lon had been burned unconscious once, revived by Xoti, and then stabbed in the side with a pincer, nearly bleeding out at Edér’s feet.

Edér was midway through grumbling about the state of his chestplate when something like a whip’s snap echoed through the chamber. But it was deeper, rumbling through Tai Lon’s chest, and it didn’t stop with a single crack. She whirled in place, searching for a source, as cracks began to run like rivers across the ceiling.

“The door’s goin’, too!” Edér said, voice urgent but hushed as though something else might snap if he spoke too loudly. Indeed, more cracks sprouted up like weeds from the pillars holding up the cavern’s entrance. He started to pull Xoti up.

In the same hushed shout, Tai Lon urged, “Move!” She reached out a hand towards Aloth and Serafen. “Let’s go!” They both snapped into action, grabbing the things they’d started to set down (Aloth’s grimoire, Serafen’s pack), and running towards her.

“_Shit!_” Apparently, Xoti’s leg was worse than she’d let on, and Tai Lon felt her heart rate spike as the priestess lost her footing. 

Edér turned on his heel, getting both arms under hers to break the fall. “C’mon,” he said, heaving Xoti up over his shoulder, and then kept running. Another crack rang out, this one deeper, harder to pinpoint, like the whip was large enough to be held by a god, yet buried in the earth—

Tai Lon’s blood ran cold.

Dust began to fall from the corners as a tremor made its way into the floor. Tai Lon watched the powder fall to the skin of her outstretched arm, almost like snow, but darker, stinging where it found its way into an open cut. Her vision grew foggy as more and more of it showered down.

She felt Aloth and Serafen breeze past her, charging for the single exit, but her arm remained in the air, reaching out for _something, something, she couldn’t remember, and this damned dust was everywhere; it was in her eyes, her clothes, her hair, her mouth, and maybe in her head, too, because she couldn’t even think beyond the screams—_

Something fell on her shoulder, and Tai Lon gasped, immediately choking on dust. This wasn’t Caed Nua. There was no god-possessed statue rising from the ground. There were no souls in danger except her companions and herself, and they just had to get out. She could do that.

Tai Lon turned on her heel and nearly ran straight into Aloth. He was saying something, she realized, and—oh, that had been his hand on her shoulder, but that meant he hadn’t cleared the doorway either.

The words to apologize wouldn’t come at the moment, so Tai Lon simply grabbed Aloth’s wrist from where it lay on her shoulder and pulled them both towards the exit.

They didn’t make it. The decrepit support on which the room’s single entrance relied gave out, crumbling in on itself like a sandcastle. As Tai Lon stumbled back from the rocks, watching the already-meager light drain from the room, she heard Edér cry, “Tai Lon! Aloth!” She thought, maybe, Xoti called out, too, but the sound broke against the stone that now divided her party.

Tai Lon wanted to scream. The frustration was there, the helplessness was there, guilt, too, because she’d been the one to hesitate, and now…well.

“Aloth?” she managed, and her voice was raw like she _had_ been shouting for hours. “Are you okay?”

“More or less,” he said softly. Tai Lon turned her head towards the sound. He was somewhere over her left shoulder. “Are _you_ alright? What happened?”

A small, indigo halo appeared around Aloth’s hand, which he held up in front of his chest. The cold light made his face appear hollow in places, but Tai Lon was glad to see him nonetheless. She wasn’t sure what she looked like, but Aloth gasped silently as she turned to face him, confusion welling up in his eyes.

“I’m not hurt,” she said. “Well, not any more than before. I just—froze. I’m sorry.”

“_Hey! Watcher! Aloth! You alive?!_” Edér’s voice reached them through the rocks, but only barely, and Tai Lon watched as more dust began to fall as he yelled.

_Don’t raise your voice_, she wanted to call out. _It’s not stable in here._ But she couldn’t tell them anything without making it worse.

_I’ve gotcha, cap,_ Serafen said, and there was a moment where Tai Lon thought maybe he was stuck in here, too, before she remembered he was a cipher. _There ye go. I told the big guy you were fine, but maybe I oughta go amendin’ meself if ye can’t remember that much._

“Watcher?” Aloth said, stepping closer. His free hand hovered near her elbow, but it didn’t settle anywhere.

“I’m fine, I promise,” she said, taking his arm in her hand and squeezing gently. “Just talking to Serafen so we don’t have to shout.” Aloth nodded, then quickly backed off.

_There’s just enough room in the rock for somethin’ small to get through,_ Serafen said. _Somethin’ my size or even smaller, if you can scrounge up a way through on your side. We’re using that fancy new shield to prop up an opening._ He paused for a second, before added, _Edér’s real worried about you, cap. He’s thinking louder than a typhoon out here._

Tai Lon breathed out slowly as warmth crept back into her chest. Edér, of course, understood, like always. She knew, no matter what, that he wouldn’t give up on her and Aloth. If she could survive her whole keep collapsing in the wake of a god, she could handle a cave-in.

“Hey, Aloth,” she said, “can you bring your light down and look for any gaps? Serafen says there’s a way through for something small on their side.” Then, to Serafen: _We’ll look for an opening._

“I’m on it,” Aloth said, already kneeling beside the rubble. After a moment, he sighed. “There’s something here, but it’s hardly large enough for us to fit through, even with how…flexible you are.”

Tai Lon crouched beside him and asked, “You still have that potion I gave you, right? The one Xoti made?”

“Yes, of course,” Aloth said, reaching for his belt. He produced a small, but intricate vial filled with icy blue liquid. She could see exactly the moment Aloth realized her plan, blue eyes widening as he stared at the potion in his fingers.

Xoti said it would make a person harder to hit, a little less solid. A little less _there_.

“Here.” With no hesitation, Aloth held the potion out to Tai Lon. The light around his other hand backlit the bottle, turning the liquid a bright violet color. It reminded Tai Lon of the path she had walked in the Beyond, of the flickers she saw where her body should have been while her soul wandered between this cycle and the next.

If she took the potion, she’d escape it again. She’d be free of this darkness, of the walls that threatened to collapse and crush her from any direction, of the memories of Caed Nua (at least for a time). But even if she was on the outside, there wasn’t anything she could do to lift a rockslide. There was nothing she could do _except_ free herself.

Tai Lon looked up from Aloth’s hands to his face. His eyes almost seemed to glow as they reflected the light in his hand, but they were not _bright_. If anything, the expression Aloth wore was neutral, like there were no questions necessary in giving Tai Lon the way out.

And, even though Tai Lon could feel her heart stutter at the idea of staying here, just _waiting_ for the collapse to start again, she shook her head. “No,” she said.

“But—”

“Aloth, I won’t leave you in here by yourself.” Tai Lon leaned back, pretending that it didn’t sting to see Aloth’s surprise. She thought they’d gotten past that a long time ago. _Ask Xoti if she remembers the potion she made for Aloth a few days ago,_ she thought at Serafen. _Unless you guys can find a way out of these ruins or make the opening any bigger, we’re not getting out of here without magic._

_Aye, cap,_ Serafen said, but his voice was strangely distant. Tai Lon wondered suddenly how much of her thought process—of her fears—he’d been able to hear.

“I’ve quite literally survived worse,” she said aloud, cutting Aloth off as he went to protest. “If Xoti can make another one of these potions, then one of us will take yours, go outside, grab the new one, and bring it back. And if not, then we’ll leave it to those three to dig us out. Between Edér and Xoti, it shouldn’t be a problem of strength. Just time.”

Aloth sighed. “There’s no arguing with you, as usual,” he said, smiling faintly as he put the potion back on his belt.

_Xoti’s got what she needs, cap_, Serafen reported. _You holdin’ up in there?_

_Like a fish out of water, Serafen,_ Tai Lon answered, knowing she couldn’t hide her anxiety if she wanted to. _But we’ll be fine._

The smell of wet dust and stone might have been the same as Caed Nua, and the pressure of being trapped was no less oppressive. But it wasn’t dark. Her head wasn’t being pulled in a million directions or being filled with screams for help. She wasn’t falling, wondering if anyone would even find her body.

“So,” Aloth began, haltingly, “did you see something? Before, when you froze up, it didn’t look like you were Watching, but…”

Tai Lon rubbed a hand across her face as she tried to explain. “Well, it’s really about the _first_ time Edér had to dig me out of a hole in the ground…”

**Author's Note:**

> It's a potion of insubstantial form. Again, props to the PoE wiki for keeping lists of every potion in the game.


End file.
